President's weekly update
28 February 2019
The British Ambassador to China, Dame Barbara Woodward, visited our University. I have met Barbara on a number of occasions in Beijing and in Manchester, including when she joined the visit of the President of China, Xi Jinping, to our University in 2015.
I took her on a quick tour of the campus. She then visited the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (she has been to the National Graphene Institute several times) with Professor Sir Andre Geim and Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Luke Georghiou, who chairs our graphene strategy board. I had a private meeting with Barbara and Richard Cotton, our Director of Student Recruitment and International Development, (Richard worked in China for several years and has met Barbara previously), where we discussed the relationships between our University, Manchester and the UK with China, and our plans to seek philanthropic funding to recruit disadvantaged Chinese students, particularly girls from rural areas. Barbara visited our Manchester China Institute hosted by Professor Pete Gries, who leads the Institute. She gave an excellent presentation to students on: ‘UK-China in 2019: How can diplomacy rise to the challenges of the 21st century?’ followed by many questions. I hosted a dinner for Barbara with senior staff from the University where we updated her on our many partnerships with China and recent concerns in the press about some Chinese companies.
I met Sam Chan, an alumnus from Hong Kong who has been a generous donor to Brunswick Park. He visited on a great day when hundreds of students were enjoying the park in the sunshine.
Senior colleagues and I visited the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences where we received questions from students on study spaces, sporting facilities, the prices in FoodonCampus outlets, the value of industrial placements and access to the Eddie Davies Library in the new Alliance Manchester Business School building. Staff asked me to update where I think we are with the Augar review and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and raised concerns about aligning teaching practices and access to space for research growth across Faculties.
QS have released their latest World Subject Rankings. Architecture and development studies are both in the top ten and in nursing we are number three globally. This follows on from our 29th placing in the overall table which was announced in the summer.
I travelled to London to serve on the interview panel for a Universities UK nominated member of the USS Trustee board. This will be an extremely important role, especially over the next year. Candidates had to have extensive experience of finances, pensions, and their regulation and equally critical, an understanding of the university sector and the importance of the USS pension to university staff.
I attended a meeting of the Industrial Strategy Council of which I am a member. We discussed the core future activities of the Council. These include skills, sectors and ‘place’ ie the importance of regions to the UK economy.
I travelled to Leeds to attend a board meeting of the Northern Powerhouse board chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill. After this I took part in the Great Northern Conference in a session on ‘innovation and the fourth industrial revolution’. I highlighted the important roles of universities in skills, research and innovation in areas such as digital, artificial intelligence and robotics but also said that creativity and imagination are critical for our future citizens.
You may have noted that the University and College Union ballot on strike action or action short of a strike based on the 2018 pay award has just closed. 41% of UCU members took part in the ballot which falls short of the 50% required to determine industrial action, so no such action will take place.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor